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I posted the following message on Feb 1. It came back to me today saying that it was rejected because of outgoing traffic breakdown (whatever that means!) At any rate I think this could be a duplicate posting or it could be a first time delayed posting of the Udall Bill - revisited. Does anyone know that statis of the Udall Bill, i.e., when it is going to Congress? Thanks to all and God Bless, June ******************************************************** Hello to all, My name is June Reynolds and I have been subscribed to this list for about a month now. My Father-in-law has PD, and I have been sharing much information on this list with him. He was particularly glad to hear about the Udall Bill and I would like to share with you some excerpts from the letters that he wrote to his Senators and Congressmen. Dear___________ The United States Congress can be correctly credited for having successfully enabled our country through its academe to establish a model for the world to emulate, in taking care of its citizens AFTER THEY FALL SICK. It is time that the U.S. Congress would likewise help establish another model of how to take care of its citizens BEFORE THEY FALL SICK. Likewise, the schools of medicine of our country, largely under the influence of the Flexner Report early in the century, have emphasized Curative medicine and even when they include departments of preventive medicine in their structure, they make sure that the Preventive cause is secondary to the original Curative mission. As a result many of the chronic degenerative neurological diseases like Alzheimer's, Multiple Sclerosis, Amylotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Myasthenia Gravies, Huntington Disease, Parkinson Disease, and many other neuro-muscular disorders, have been left on their own, to ravage casualties from the human race, leaving the patients to suffer completely at their mercy, in onset, clinical outburst, mobility, morbidity, and eventually mortality. Parkinson is the most common and if you were afflicted with this disease, in any of your family, relatives, or circle of friends, you would come to know how devasting it is: You and I (as a case of Parkinson) know clearly that we were mobile in all our muscles even before we were born, but this disease would render us completely immobile even before death. ...Except for Huntington, whose genetic origin has been discovered, new cases appear every year although the management of the morbidity has improved but only symptomatically. Devastation by these chronic diseases like devastation by more acute earthquake, famine, war, or epidemics of infectious disease, ought to attract more research attention than Congress has so far directed. Senator Hatfield's - Udall Bill (s2294) awakens the Congressional mind as well as public awareness to the fact that it is high time to focus the intent of basic research on the risk factors, yet unknown, of Parkinson's after millions of cases have been systematically treated and died either of intermittent infection or condition, or of final complete immobilization which suffocates the morale of the individual and over burdens the mental and financial state of family and surroundings. In medical practice we used to refer neurological cases to neurologists where we knew we were referring them to dead-end streets. Unless, you in Congress donate more money than even this Bill calls for, the incidence of this disease will continue to rise, much to the embarrassment and shame both of our medical schools and our Congress. It is time that we rise up to the responsibility of complete primary prevention of theses diseases and especially Parkinson. Advances in the knowledge of Neuroscience have been paramount. Neither the cost of treatment nor the focus of research on prevention contribute to our eminence, (otherwise) in the field of medical practice. I have Parkinson and so did my late wife and so does her sister. We don't want our children to suffer from it. Don't your agree? Thankfully and sincerely,